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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



BEAL COOKEEY. 



EEAL COOKEEY 



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NEW YORK 

CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
104 5f 106 Fourth Avenue 







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Copyright, 1893, by 
CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 



A II rights reserved. 



THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, 
KAHWAY, N. J. 



PEEFACE TO THE AMEEICAN EDITION. 

You must permit me to offer a word of explanation 
and of apology in inviting your attention to this 
pamphlet. It is based upon the supposition of no 
school and no traditions of good cooking. Now 
these do exist in the great centres from New York 
to California, and even perfect cooking can be 
found in places remote from capital towns, in 
Louisiana, Maryland, and Long Island, because of 
the tradition having been kept alive through gene- 
rations. But, alas, *' messy " cooking has of late 
years crept in to an alarming extent, and it is 
against this that I am warning you ; hence, I feel 
justified in presenting to you an extreme view of 
the existing state of things, a caricature, perhaps, 
but still true enough as regards the great majority 
of Anglo-Saxon feeders. 



ii PBEFACE TO THE AMEBICAN MDITIOJ^. 

To you, familiar as you are with the broiler, the 
grill, and the chafing dish, I need hardly whisper : 
Do not fry or bake meats ; but I wish to preach 
simplicity, and to inspire you with the desire of 
studying this important subject more or less your- 
self, instead of leaving everything to your excellent 
and well-paid cook. 

As to the variety I urge, it will prove a much 
easier task for you than for your British cousin, 
because you have everything he possesses except 
the sole, and you have an enormous variety besides, 
unless it be perhaps an occasional canvas-back, or 
a dish of terrapin that found its way across, the 
gift of a friend. 

The Gaul has the advantage of you in the matter 
of truffles — I do not admit goose livers, because, if 
you chose, you could have as good as ever were 
reared in Alsace ; you have only to stuff your bird 
with Indian corn in the Alsatian fashion, if the 
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 
would let you. 

On the other hand, neither Gaul nor Briton can 



PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. iu 



boast the glorious variety of food offered by the 
American Continent — variety so great that entrees 
become comparatively an easy question to solve. I 
do not feel the need of a made dish, secundum artem, 
if you give me a soft shell crab; and who would want 
a salmi of game, if you give him a grass-plover or 
a canvas-back ? The hard crab in mid- winter is, 
by the way, a shellfish unapproached by any in 
Europe, and contains (I mean the female) the 
richest, sweetest, and most digestible fat I 
know. 

The tiny clam, raw or stewed, is also an advantage 
you have over your cousins, but it is only in the 
knowledge of its excellence, because the clam (and 
the soft clam, too) exist in abundance on the coast 
of Ireland and Scotland, only the natives would 
rather starve than eat them. 

The only source of danger with you is that you 
will but too often be tempted to have vegetables or 
fruit out of season and when not fully matured. 
I know you do not mind what the cost may be, 
provided you have a primeur to set before your 



iv PEE FACE TO THE AMEBIC AN EDITION. 

guests, but I maintain a good sound Newtown 
pippin is better than strawberries tasting of straw. 
Your larder is so bounteously filled with good 
things of all kinds that you may succeed with only 
a moderate amount of judgment and care on your 
part in putting a good dinner before your friends, 
and I hope the very few principles I attempt to lay 
down may enable you to produce your most excel- 
lent victuals in a simple and, notwithstanding the 
simplicity, in their most succulent form. 

ADDITIONS TO AMERICAN BILL OF FARE. 
Breakfast. 

(Dyspeptics beware of all sorts of hot bread and cakes.) 

Hash of all kinds. 

Fish balls. 

Stewed clams. 

Rice cakes. ) _, 

Buckwheat cakes. J ^ut no syrup. 

Hot corn bread. 

Dinner. 

Besides oysters, Little-neck Clams. 
Soups, Chicken with fresh Okra. 



PBEFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. v 



Entries, 

Green peppers, stuffed. 
>i » with Tomato Sauce. 



Game, 



Canvas-back ducks. 

Reed-birds. 

Rails. 

Upland Plover. 



CONTENTS. 



PABT I. 
CHAPTEE I. 



PAGE 



On what Indian cooks call " painted dislies," and on 
cooks running opposition shops to decorative 
artists — Dainty meals and real cookery capable of 
achievement with far less trouble . . .13 

CHAPTER II. 

No meats to be fried — All sauces, except the natural 
gravy, to be served separately — Grilhng on char- 
coal — Eschew gas stoves for cooking of meats, and 
do not bake your joints . . . .17 

CHAPTER III. 

On seasoning in the kitchen — Patent sauces not real 
cookery — Soups and vegetables not to be peppered 



CONTENTS. 



in the kitchen — Pure wine only, no " cooking " 
wine — Grilling preferable to frying for fish and 
fowl, as well as for meat — Caution as to over- 
cooking ..... 18 

CHAPTER IV. 
On bills of fare and their composition . ^ ,20 

CHAPTER V. 

Bills of fare (continued) — Best materials only to be 
used, including butter and everything that enters 
your kitchen . . , r . .22 

CHAPTER VI. 

Simplicity, and again simplicity— On the folly of 
trying to produce dinners on the same lines as 
the banquets of the rich, who employ first-class 
French cooks — An excellent dinner quite possible 
in any house, even in lodgings . . » 24 

CHAPTER VII. 

!)n entrees — The " messy " entree — The too rich entree 
— The flabby entree, and why always mashed 
potatoes as a basis for the "flabby" ? ... 26 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



PAGE 



Entrees (continued) — Good entrees, or none at all- 
Sauces to be served separately , . .29 



CHAPTER IX. 

On the importance of taking an interest in cookery, 
of being on good terms with your cook, and of 
judicious criticism and praise — On studying the 
literature of cookery ... 30 



CHAPTER X. 

On the mistake of employing a French chef if you are 
not a good judge of cookery— On the well-trained 
Mary Jane . . . . . .33 



CHAPTER XI. 

On the decoration of the table — Again simplicity — No 
strong- scented flowers— No " greenery-yaUery " 
stuffs— Lighting of the table and shades— No fads 
or frills— Electric light— Fruit— On menus, and 
why always French menus, even for the most 
simple and most thoroughly Enghsh dinners? — 
On wines ; here again simplicity and sincerity as 
to quality . . , . , .35 



10 



CONTENTS. 



PART II.—BECIPES, Etc. 

Breakfast. Bread 
Tea 
Coffee 
Chocolate 
Eggs 

Eggs on tlie plate 
Scrambled eggs 
Hominy . 

Dinner. Soups , 

Shellfish 
Lobster salad 
Grilled lobster 
Curried lobster 
Baked lobster 
Lobster (" G. N. 
Crawfish 
Whitebait .. 
Other fish 
Meat 
Steaks . 
Game 
Entrees . 
Vegetables . 
Sauces . 
Sweets 
Ices 
^ill of Fare 



« « 



PAOB 

44 
45 
45 

46 
47 
47 
48 
49 

49 
50 
51 
52 
54 
54 
55 
56 
56 
57 
58 
59 
60 
61 
64 
67 
73 
75 
77 



PART L 



PAET I. 

* I have seen the mahoganies of many men " (Thackeray, 
" Mr. Brown's Letters to his Nephew"). 

CHAPTER I. 

On what Indian cooks call "painted dishes," and on 
cooks running opposition shops to decorative 
artists— Dainty meals and real cookery capable 
of achievement with far less trouble. 

If there is one thing in this world you, my dear 
reader, and I can cordially agree about, that one 
thing, assuredly, must be our dinner — the every- 
day " plain roast and boiled," as well as the 
average dinner party. The monotony of the former, 
I know, is as hateful to you as the vulgar richness 

of the latter. Do you remember Mrs. Smith- 
is 



14 BEAL COOKERY, 

Jenkins*, the other day, with its pretentious, end- 
less French menu, and the " saumon en surprise f*^ 
consisting of a cupid in rice paste, adorned with 
rose-coloured horse-shoes, and underneath these a 
green-dyed puree of salmon ? And the "/oie graSy' 
stuffed into a flock of miniature geese (again in 
rice paste), these delectable geese floating in a 
pond of green aspic-jelly ? Why all this masque- 
rade, I ask ? Are we a parcel of children that we 
require victuals in the shape of toys ? Is it because 
of the cook's ancient, but silly, privilege to show us 
they, too, can be painters and sculptors ? No, it 
is because of our insane desire to dish up every- 
thing in some astonishing way — what things taste 
like matters not. Nor could you expect excellence 
of flavour when " dummies " and garnishes absorb 
more of the cook's time than the cooking itself. 

All this is vanity, humbug, and affectation, if 
we would only be candid enough to own it. Keal 
cookery — sincere and honest cookery — is quite 
another thing. 

The object I have in view is to explain to 



"MESSY" COOKERY. 15 

you how, with comparatively little trouble, both 
your own every-day meal ai:id the magnificent 
parade of Mrs. Smith-Jenkins could be made 
pleasant, digestible, and delightful, and it would 
be easier for me to make myself understood if you 
will permit me, for the moment, to imagine you 
slightly dyspeptic, and, therefore, most particular 
as to the preparation of your food.* 

To illustrate the ** messy " way we now have of 
dressing simple things, suppose we take a plain 
lamb cutlet. It does not matter where you may 
call for that simple dish, whether hotel, restaurant, 

* For those who are really dyspeptic, or invalids, I have 
sketched a bill of fare, with a view to the patient submitting 
it to his medico. As a rule, the doctor's time being Hmited, 
the bills of fare or directions as to diet they give to their 
patients are equally limited, and, as many classes of sufferers 
require a varied diet, I would urge all such to get their 
physicians to look through this bill of fare, amplified by them 
if they have favourite dishes to insert. I venture to say the 
medical man could more quickly strike out what is unsuitable 
than he could write out himself what is fit for his patient. 
Thus the patient may be tempted to eat, and so to gain 
strength, by a judiciously varied bill of fare. The cooking 
in every ca^e must be simple but dainty. {See ;page 77.) 



16 REAL COOKERY. 



or club, you will be served with a parcel of thin, 
bread-crumbed cutlets fried to death, and swimming 
in, not a sauce, but a sort of soup, flavoured with 
tomato-ei.tract and, possibly, with Peppershire or 
similar sauces as well. If your palate be so 
depraved as to make you fancy you enjoy this dish, 
your common sense, if not your experience, must 
tell you it is very far from the digestible, tasty 
cutlet you require, and that the true mode of 
serving it is a very different one. I need not tell 
you, an old traveller, that a plain lamb cutlet 
(cotellete d'agneau nature) means all over France 
and the civilised Continent, a moderately thick 
juicy cut, carefully grilled over a brisk charcoal 
fire, and served with its own gravy only, with a 
slice of lemon on a bed of watercresses. This 
brings me to my first three points, discussed in 
the next chapter. 



CHAPTEK II. 

No meats to be fried — All sauces, except the natural 
gravy, to be served separately — Grilling on char- 
coal — Eschew gas stoves for cooking of meats, and 
do not bake your joints. 

My first three points are — fir.-tly, no meats are 
to be fried; secondly, they are not to be served 
with any gravy or sauce save their own, and 
that gravy not diluted to the extent of a soup, any 
other sauce being served separately ; thirdly, in- 
variably use a charcoal stove for grilling — nothing 
better than charcoal for developing the flavour of 
meat. This stove costs but a few shillings, and 
will often save a coal fire. 

No preparing of meats on gas stoves and no 
bating of meats to be permitted. 

2 17 



CHAPTER in. 

On seasoning in the kitchen — Patent sauces not real 
cookery — Soups and vegetables not to be peppered 
in the kitchen — Pure wine only, no " cooking " 
wine — Grilling preferable to frying for fish and 
fowl, as well as for meat — Caution as to over- 
cooking. 

Do not allow your cook to send up meats un- 
seasoned. Salt and freshly ground black pepper 
should be judiciously used while cooking, if the 
flavour of the meat is to be fully developed ; but 
do not, on any account, admit nutmeg, mace, and 
hot sauces of the Peppershire kind into your 
kitchen. No condiments to be used, except such as 
may develop or heighten, none such as are apt to 
disguise, the natural flavour of each dish, while all 
peppering of soups and vegetables in the kitchen 

18 



ON GRILLING FISH AND FOWL. 19 



should be altogether prohibited. If any wine be 
used, it must be sound, pure, grape-juice out of 
your own cellar, and not so-called " cooking wine," 
bought by the cook. It is only too often an 
adulterated article. 

Persuade your cook to substitute the grill for the 
frying-pan, as to fish and fowl as well as for meat. 
I am sure both your palate and your digestion will 
be the gainers by that change. 

Caution your cook in regard to overcooking. As 
a rule, fish and fowl are cooked more than neces- 
sary, much to the detriment of flavour and delicacy, 
not to mention both thereby being rendered tough 
and indigestible. This remark applies in par- 
ticular to shell-fish and to the sauces of which 
shell-fish are the basis. Nothing could be worse 
than overcooked shrimp or lobster sauce; and 
many a time, when you thought your fish was not 
fresh, I am sure it was simply overcooked. (See 
page 73 for my suggestions as to the preparation 
of such sauces.) 



CHAPTER IV. 
On bills of fare and their composition. 

Do not expect your cook, unless more than usually 
intelligent, to compose the bills of fare for your 
daily dinner, or for a party, but do it yourself 
until, at least, you have properly trained your cook 
and until you have made her understand your 
ways. Of course, if the good wife should happen to 
have a taste for such small matters as cookery, 
she will do very much better than any one else. 

For my own part I would not trust any cook to 
compose a bill of fare for me. It is an easy task 
to tell, when you dine out, whether the chef was 
the sole author, or whether the chatelaine has 
stamped the menu with her own seal. When six 
out of eight dishes are truffled, no matter whether 

20 



BILLS OF FABE. 21 

the dinner be in January or in July, you may 
safely back the chef's authorship. And where 
there is hardly one plain dish, when lobsters, 
ducklings, &c., appear in the shape of moiisselines 
or soufflees long odds may be laid on the chef's 
having had no one to say him nay. 



CHAPTER V. 

Bills of fare {continued) — Best materials only to be 
used, including butter and everything that enters 
your kitchen. 

Whether your dinner be for yourself alone or for 
a party, choose your dishes with an eye to their 
lightness and digestibility, as well as with a view 
to careful opposition of colour and flavour, and 
never attempt to serve a dinner except with the 
very best materials that can possibly be procured. 
I do not mean so-called first-class articles, but 
those of the highest degree of excellence. Make it 
your business to find out where the finest can be 
had, and, if you be frightened by the price, serve 
fewer dishes and really first-rate rather than a 
larger number not quite so good. 



BEST MATERIALS ONLY, 23 

When I say *' best materials," I mean everything 
that is used for cooking. If it be butter, let it be 
the best, such as you would yourself eat for break- 
fast. Your cooking butter cannot be too good, be- 
cause the inferior article is apt to spoil any dish 
beyond hope, and you would only be " spoiling the 
ship for a ha'p'orth of tar." Now, this principle 
applies to all materials used in cooking. 



CHAPTEK VI. 

Simplicity, and again simplicity — On the folly of trying 
to produce dinners on the same lines as the 
banquets of the rich, who employ first-class French 
cooks — An excellent dinner quite possible in any 
house, even in lodgings. 

Let your dinner, even for a party, be simple. 
Eeally good French cooking is simple and not a bit 
like the rich, make-believe French dishes we so 
often meet with, intended to charm the eye by 
decoration in doubtful taste rather than to rejoice 
the palate. Allow me also to say to those who are 
not dyspeptics, but who may be leading indoor 
lives, that simple, daintily cooked and judiciously 
varied meats would be far better for their health 
and comfort than the usual style of cooking at a 
London dinner party. 

24 



A DINNEB IN LODGINGS. 25 

Do not overrate the capacity and the talents of your 
excellent, but not highly artistic, cook, by urging 
imitation of the fancy dishes of the distinguished 
chef of your most noble friend, the Marquis de 
Carabas. Depend upon it, with first-class materials, 
a simple dinner is vastly more successful than an 
elaborate one. One of the very best dinners I ever 
enjoyed was given by a bachelor in his lodgings, and 
the bill of fare consisted only of oysters (no soup), a 
John Dory, a saddle of mutton, potatoes baked in the 
ashes, a pheasant, a plum-pudding, and a piece of 
well-matured Camembert cheese, all washed down 
with 74 champagne, followed by a grand bottle of 
claret. In this case perfection had been secured 
by the care our host had displayed in personally 
selecting each article, and by the equally careful 
instructions given by him to the modest cook, or 
possibly to the landlady herself. 



CHAPTEK VII. 

On entrees — the *' messy" entrSe — The too rich entrk — 
The flabby entree, and why always mashed potatoes 
as a basis for the "flabby " ? 

Of course you require a fuller bill of fare for a 
regular dinner party, with soup, ices, and dessert. 
You will study to a nicety the oppositions in colour 
and in flavour of the dishes, plain though they be. 
Each dish then forming a pleasing contrast to the 
preceding one and each being first-rate of its kind, 
you may rest contented with only one or, at most, 
two made dishes or entrees as a fillip to your other- 
wise simple dinner. Being a sensible man, you 
will know that your entree should not be a messy, 
decorative monstrosity, but a daintily cooked, 
digestible dish. Do not attempt to set before 

26 



ENTBEES, COMMON, RICH OR VAPID. 27 

your guests such doubly rich and utterly indi- 
gestible horrors as a terrine de foie graSy covered 
with a salade russe (a vegetable salad drowned in 
mayonnaise sauce). 

Another fashionable and hideously unwholesome 
dish is mousse de foie gras, made of tinned goose 
livers, whipped up with cream. The French 
way of preparing it is a very different one : Fresh 
goose livers, whipped up with champagne, cooked 
with fresh truffles and served moulded in aspic 
jelly. As a matter of fact, the average pdUf or 
terrine de foie gras is not a first-rate article, greasy 
as a rule and containing a good deal of sausage 
meat. The very finest pates en croute are, of course, 
an exception, but you can approach them very 
nearly by potting fresh goose livers with fresh 
truffles. Both can be had at Benoist's in Piccadilly. 

On the other hand eschew the vapid, flabby style 
of entree. I mean dishes of the boiled fowl kind, 
with a flour and milk-cum-nutmeg sauce, or the 
fried sweetbread floating in an acid, ** tomato- 
extract " soup. I fancy these unsophisticated 



28 BEAL COOKEBY. 

attempts at entrees have very nearly goae out of 
fashion, but they survive in the shape of equally 
flabby and tasteless, if more ornamental, dishes 
such as supreme (breasts) of chicken, adorned with 
insipid preserved truffles, or soaking, in the form 
of cutlets, around a heap of vapid tinned green 
peas, all walled in by little mounds or a wreath of 
mashed potatoes. If the chicken were accompanied 
by a dish of fresh, grilled, but not overcooked 
mushrooms no larger than a florin, it might find 
favour with your guests without costing more. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

Entrees {continued) — Good entrees or none at all — Sauces 
to be served separately. 

You will readily conclude from the foregoing 
remarks that your entrees, simple though they be, 
must be more toothsome than the vapid dishes I 
have named. You will find later on abundant 
suggestions for entrees^ but, I should suggest your 
being content with a good beefsteak and potatoes, 
rather than striving to produce a dish beyond your 
powers or simply worthless. 

In the matter of sauces let them be served 
separately. I do not know why the vile habit of 
drowning every piece of meat in sauce and allowing 
it to soak has penetrated into almost every house. 
Let your grilled or roasted meat come to table hot 
and unimpaired in flavour, in its own gravy only ; 
then, if I do iiot fancy your sauce, I may go without. 

29 



CHAPTER IX. 

On the importance of taking an interest in cookery, of 
being on good terms with your cook, and of 
judicious criticism and praise — On studying the 
literature of cookery. 

I HOPE you have now arrived at the conclusion 
that you ought not to be above taking a very close 
interest in cookery. And why, indeed, should you 
be above doing so ? Does not your health depend 
upon your getting properly cooked and inviting 
food ? Are you one of the favoured few who lead 
an out-of-door life and who take sufficient exercise 
to assimilate coarse fare ? 

And you, dear madam, let me urge you to 
consider the importance of an attractive dinner 
table if you wish to keep your husband from his 
^lub. Be persuaded by me that ^ sm^ll — oom* 



LITEBATUBE OF COOKEBY. 81 

paratively very small— amount of attention and 
study will assuredly accomplish success. Do not 
fear, having once trained your cook in your own 
sensible ways, that your time and trouble will be 
lost, for the tradition of good cooking, once estab- 
lished, will survive in your kitchen. Naturally, 
you and she have become better acquainted through 
a mutual interest in the art of cookery, aud you 
are, I trust, on excellent terms with one another. 
You will never withhold praise from her, when 
praise is due, and you will never criticise her 
achievements without assigning good reasons for 
your remarks and without being able to set her on 
the right track. Do not doubt your ability to do 
so, for you will be surprised yourself how quickly 
you will learn, if you use your palate with intelli- 
gence, and if you read such works as Sir Henry 
Thompson's * admirable book on " Food and 
Feeding," Mr. Theodore Child's t volume, *' Delicate 

* Sir Henry Thompson, " Food and Feeding." F. Warne 
and Co. 1891. 

t Theodore Child, " Delicate Pining." J. Jl, Osgood, 
Mcllvaine and Co. 1891. 



32 BEAL COOKEBY. 



DiniDg,'* and A. Hay ward's* "Art of Dining," with 
Goaffe's classical " Livre de Cuisine," f as a work 
of reference whenever you happen to be in doubt. 
But, above all, you must give five minutes to 
Thackeray's chapter on "Great and Little Dinners " 
("Mr. Brown's Letters to his Nephew"). 

* A. Hay ward, "Art of Dining." J. Murray. 1883. 

f J. Gouffe, " Le Livre de Cuisine." Hacliette and Co. 

1888. 



CHAPTEK X. 

On the mistake of employing a French chef if you are 
not a good judge of cookery— On the well -trained 
Mary Jane. 

It is not a wise plan for you to engage a superior 
class of cook, unless you be a good judge yourself. 
Ten to one he will not be amenable to your wishes, 
deeming his own judgment superior. He will run 
not in all sorts of fancy dishes, des tmffes truffees 
will pervade every meal, and he will treat you to 
high art in the shape of des pieces montees, such 
as you may see depicted in Gouffe. As a sample 
here is one ; a classical vase, contents unknown, 
capped by a Roman, armour-clad torso (in paste, of 
course, from a mould ad hoc), the said torso flanked 
by truffles, pierced by swords or skewers. Unless it 

^ 33 



34 BEAL COOKERY. 

be the Cupid and horse-shoes (mentioned page 12) 
could bad taste go further than this? On the 
other hand, your chef will be for neglecting his 
sauces, and may even degenerate to the extent of 
asking for "Peppershire" or other patent sauces, to 
save himself the trouble of preparing his sauces 
meres. 

If you are wise you will be satisfied with a well- 
trained Mary Jane, not too old to be taught your 
own ideas and wishes, and you will make a point 
of going into your kitchen from time to time. I 
know many ladies do not venture to do so for fear 
of being turned out by the cook. All I have to say 
is, that kind of a cook ought to have five minutes* 
notice to leave the house. 



CHAPTER XI. 

On the decoration of tlie table — Again simplicity— No 
strong-scented flowers — No " greenery-yallery " 
stuffs— Lighting of the table and shades — No fads 
or frills— Electric light— Fruit— On menus, and 
why always French menus, even for the most simple 
and most thoroughly English dinners?— On wines ; 
here again simplicity and sincerity as to quality. 

When you give a modest banquet, judiciously 
ordered, you will let the decoration of your table 
be as simple as your dinner. No strong-scented 
flowers, I hope, and none very expensive. Why- 
waste your substance on cut flowers? Spend 
all you like on excellent food and the best of 
wine. I am glad to know you despise ** greenery- 
yallery " dirty-coloured stuffs disposed limply 
on TOur table, with a flower or two, artfully 

•^ 35 



36 BEAL COOKEBY. 

stuck into the folds, wherever possible. You seek 
all your glory in the finest white napery, bright 
silver, glass of the whitest, purest, and finest 
shaped, and flowers as nearly as possible of one 
pale tint, the leaves being of very light colour. 
You have nothing on the table so high as to hide 
one guest from the other, and your lights are so 
contrived as to light up well the charming faces 
gathered around your festive board. You have a 
lamp, suspended just above their heads, and candles 
on the dinner-table itself, both well screened, 
not obscured ; but no fads or frills in the shape 
of umbrellas or parasols in lieu of shades over 
the lights. Only too often have you seen the 
frills ending up in a flare. Green or opalescent 
shades throw a ghastly hue over every face, and 
electric light in the ceiling infallibly casts every 
eye into deep shadow. Why, since the intro- 
duction of electric light, this mode of lighting a 
dinner-table from the ceiling has come into fashion, 
must ever remain a mystery. I am sure you are 
not as unkind as all this to your fair friends. 



^XTBAVAGANT DE88EBTS. 37 



There has been, and there is still, much con- 
troversy as to fruit being banished from the table. 
I hope you will weigh that question well, and, 
whatever you decide finally, I trust you will have 
no fruit that is not intended to he eaten. Any dish 
of fruit or confectionery on the table solely for 
the purpose of decoration, is a sin against good 
taste. Why all this gorgeousness of dessert ? 
Would not one or two dishes of fruit in season 
serve every purpose ? You have given your guests 
a bounteous feast, surely there is no necessity to 
pile a quantity of fruit and confectionery on the 
top of it all. 

Since we are at one, so far, and since you mean 
to be simple, you will not, of course, elaborate your 
accessories, such as the menu-cards and stands, 
and, as for the menu itself (which you have suc- 
ceeded in producing of only reasonable length), as 
your courage failed you in your attempt to write 
it in plain English, let the French list of the 
English dishes produced by your British goddess 
below stairs, be revised by some well-educated 



38 BEAL COOKEBY. 

Frenchman (not by a French chef), else you will 
be sure to come to grief.* 

I am sorry Sir Henry Thompson condemns all 
attempts at English bills of fare, because, he says, 
the introduction of certain indispensable French 
words would result in a " mongrel patois," but, 
with all deference to Sir Henry's opinion, I hold 
the " mongrel "to be pJ-eferable to the schoolgirl 
French, frequently misspelt, of most of our French 
menu achievements. 

As a fair sample of these I will select the familiar 
ceufs de pluvier (plover's eggs), known to the French 
only as ceii/s de vanneau (lapwing's eggs). As a 
matter of fact, the latter are the very eggs we 
delight in as the plover's ; they are the lapwing's 
or peewit's, belonging to the plover family, but 
they are not those of the grey or golden plover, 
which do not nest in this country. I fancy these 
0?^(/s de pluvier would prove something of a conun- 
drum to a French poulterer; but if you, my fair 

* Pray save me from menus printed in gold type. Why 
add to the difficulty of reading small print ? 



FBEIfCS MENUS. B9 



reader, mean to stick to that word in spite of all, 
please use the singular and not the plural, also say 
*' sauce a la diable " and not " sauce au diable." 

Why is our honest Southdown almost invariably 
styled pre sale by our intelligent composers of 
menus ? Surely this is reducing it from the first to 
the third rank in the mutton world. The French pre 
sale (salt-marsh) mutton cannot compare with our 
Southdown and, in point of fact, it is quite another 
article. Perhaps the same intelligent composer 
would call Severn salmon sawnon du Rhin ? What 
I wish to ask now is this : you, with your usual 
sincerity and good taste, write in your bill of fare 
tender-loin steaks a la Rossini, and a Frenchman, 
in his, roast-beef a VAnglaise ; can either be called 
a " mongrel patois " ? I hold that culinary terms 
ought to be entitled to free passes into every 
language. 

Supposing, too, that all our French menus, from 
the schoolgirl's to the confectioner's or purveyor's 
of ball suppers, were unobjectionable French, what 
is the good of them to, say, one-half of your guests, 



40 BEAL COOKEBY. 

whose knowledge of French, admittedly, is of the 
slightest ? And as for the hired Eobert, do you 
expect him to be a French scholar and to bring 
you that dish with a long French name to it ? As 
like as not he will serve something else instead 
and will tell you " Hoff, sir." 

I am happy to say the fashion of serving many 
kinds of wine is going out. Sherry, claret, and 
champagne served together throughout the dinner 
as well as champagne with the after-dinner wine, 
are amply sufficient for most people, and doubtless 
those who indulge in a greater variety will pay the 
penalty some day. I prefer one wine throughout 
and that very good, and if I have any doubts as to 
the quality of the tap, I ask for plain whiskey and 
soda. 

In all things, then, be simple and sincere. Many 
men besides the writer have urged simplicity. Forty 
or more years ago one ** who had seen the 
mahoganies of many men " said, " Great folks, if 
they like you, take no count of your feasts and grand 
preparations, and can but eat mutton like men." 



PART IL 



PAET II.. 

You who have done me the kindness to 
follow me thus far, do not, please, expect a 
complete treatise on the art of cooking, or a list 
of recipes, such as the professed cook is in the 
habit of referring to. My object is only to en- 
lighten you — and any intelligent cook — as to good 
and sound principles. The recipes I give are very 
few, and are only intended to illustrate these 
principles, which are : — 

I. Do not fry or bake meats. 

II. Do not cook meat on gas stoves. 

III. Grill whenever you can. 

IV. Do not overcook. 

V. No shams, no "messes," no pretentious 
efforts. 
VI, Simplicitj^. 

43 



44 BEAL COOKEBY. 

VII. Variety whenever possible. 
VIII. Best materials only. 

And now we will run through the bill of fare 
attached to this book and see what suggestions 
may offer themselves. In every case let your 
palate and your brains be your best guides. 

BKEAKFAST. 

Bread, 

As a rule, is not for the dyspeptic. All but the 
crust of our home-made bread may fairly be 
called indigestible. If you do not eat biscuits, 
try properly made toast. I do not mean the 
ordinary J inch or f inch thick piece of sodden 
bread, simply browned on both sides, lying like 
a lump in your stomach, but a slice xV i^^ch 
thick or thinner, thoroughly toasted through and 
well dried. If it is all crust, as it should be, it will 
give your teeth three times the work that bread 
or ordinary toast would give. 

Stale bread is best for the purpose, 



TEA. COFFEE. 45 



Tea 

If allowed to stand 5 minutes develops tannin, 
which we know to be most injurious. Make 
your tea in an earthenware pot, and, after 1 to 
2 minutes' drawing, strain off (no leaves, if you 
please) into the pot it is to be served in. If it has 
drawn longer than said above, add a pinch of 
bicarbonate of soda. Avoid taking a great quantity 
of tea, better have — 

Coffee. 

Use the best quality only. If you cannot 
manage to roast your own beans every day, procure 
freshly roasted, but be sure to grind them in your 
own kitchen just before preparing the coffee for 
use. By roasting your own beans you will avoid 
having an inferior, and possibly an adulterated 
article palmed off on you; you will thus secure 
most of the aroma which, in the ground state, 
is quickly lost to an appreciable extent. Do not 
attempt to boil your coffee, or to invest in this 
or that patent machine— none of these are equal to 



46 BEAL COOKEBY, 

the earthenware percolator. Place in this the freshly 
ground coffee, IJ dessert spoonsful for 1 small cup 
of after-dinner coffee (or coffee extract), pat it down 
lightly, put a strainer over it, and gently pour 
through it the boiling water. If you be allowed 
to indulge in this after luncheon and dinner — 
mind, without cream — ^you will, for breakfast, add 
twice the quantity of hot milk or water. 

Chocolate. 

You cannot possibly get a good article fit for 
your table at 2 or 3 shillings a pound. As a rule, 
it is far from being unadulterated with rice-flour, 
sugar, &c. Better pay a high price for the choco- 
late, and if you still care to mix it up with rice- 
flour, &c., then buy that, too, and your purse will 
not suffer. I use Marquis' surjin mi-vanilley 
costing lOj francs; the Kilo of 2^ lbs. (about 
4 shillings per pound), and I fancy equally good 
can be obtained elsewhere in Paris, but not for 
much less money. For cooking purposes choco- 
late without sugar (sans sucre) is recommended by 



EGGS. 47 

experienced cojifiseurs. As a beverage I prefer 
it prepared with water only. Pour very little hot 
water into the grated chocolate until well mixed ; 
then go on pouring water gradually, and finally 
let it simmer awhile. If you whisk it to a froth in 
the cup, you will not wish for milk ; on festive oc- 
casions only indulge your guests, if not yourself, 
in a spoonful of whipped cream. I should recom- 
mend also your preparing your Cocoa with water 
only. 

Eggs. 
By all means have a great variety in your egg 
dishes. They are all good, whether boiled, poached, 
scrambled and in omelette form, provided they be 
soft and provided they be not fried in grease. 

Eggs on the plate or shirred 

(oeufs sur le plat). 
Put a little butter into an earthenware dish or 
small pot and cook the eggs no longer than abso- 
lutely required to set the white. Serve quickly as 
fchey will go on cooking in the pot. 



48 BEAL COOKERY. 

A few peeled shrimps thrown over the eggs after 
cooking are a pleasing addition to this dish, and 
so are, if you do not mind the expense, oysters. 
These should be added, with a pinch of cayenne, 
before taking off the fire; long enough to be warmed 
through, but not to cook. 

Scrambled {or buttered) Eggs. 

Keep stirring the eggs in the previously melted 
butter, and take them off the fire while still in 
a liquid state. The usual hard, solid mess is 
quite unfit to eat. Excellent additions to this 
dish, or to as lightly cooked an omelette, are peeled 
shrimps or prawns, crawfish tails and claws, 
which, being already cooked, must only be warmed 
up in the dish ; also mushrooms, previously cooked, 
or a thick sauce of beef stock, &c. 

Eggs, boiled 3|- minutes, the whites just set and 
the yolks liquid are excellent, served whole, free 
from the shells, in a bechamel (white stock) sauce 
with chopped mushrooms, or with peeled shrimps. 
I prefer this style to the rather flat oeufs d la 



SOUPS. 49 

poulette, and I do not fancy any preparation of 
eggs with cheese and cream as being too rich. 
I much prefer shrimps to prawns, because better 
flavoured and not so tough as the latter. If you 
do want a rich dish of eggs, then add to it the 
shrimp-prawn or crawfish (ecrevisses) butter, pre- 
pared by pounding the shells, &c., and stewing 
with butter. By the way, why do people persist 
in speaking of ecrevisses as crayfish ? The crayfish 
is the clawless lobster (langouste). 

Hominy. 

An American preparation of Indian corn, can be 
had at the American grocers in Piccadilly. Must 
be boiled at least IJ hours. After boiling, grill in 
little cakes with butter, and season slightly. 

DINNEK. 
Soups. 

Diner-out that you are of many years* standing, 
will you tell me how often you have come across a 
good plain clear soup, tasting of the meat and 

4 



50 BEAL COOKEEY. 

vegetables, and not of diluted glue, wine, spices, 
and hot sauces? The trouble with most of our 
cooks is that they let the meat simmer too long in 
the pot by 2 or 3 hours, consequently it tastes of 
bone, and that gluey flavour has to be disguised by 
condiments. If you do put vegetables into the soup, 
I would urge your not sending these to table, but 
to have fresh vegetables cooked and put into the 
soup ready to serve, or you may prefer a plain soup 
with macaroni, vermicelli, Italian paste, custard or 
what not. If you are not quite fit for solid food, a 
plain soup with a poached egg in it is excellent. 

Use veal and chicken (an old hen is best) liberally 
for flavouring your soup. 

Do not brown your meat intended for soup, and 
do not colour the soup with caramel. 

Shellfish. 

That excellent gourmet. Commodore McVickar, 
of New York, U.S.A., teaches us how to cook a 
lobster : — 

** If you have ever tasted a lobster * boiled in 
* I find the same applies to a crab. 



SHELLFISH. 61 



my way you will never be so stupid as to buy one 
ready boiled which, for all you know, may be of 
yesterday's boiling, if not of the day before. Get 
a live (green) lobster and put it into a court- 
houillon of parsley, carrots, a shallot (unless you 
prefer a touch of garlic), a handful of salt, and a 
pat of fresh butter. Let the water be absolutely 
boiling, then boil 15 minutes and add a claret glass 
of Chablis or Marsala, and allow it to cool in its 
own court-houillon.^* 

So far the Commodore, who then goes on to 
describe the dressing of the lobster salad. For my 
own part I prefer the lobster served hot in its own 
court-houillon strained ; better still with the latter 
served in a sauce-boat. 

Fifteen minutes is a good average time for boil- 
ing, but, as lobsters vary in size, it is well to observe- 
that the fish is done as soon as it begins to float. 

Lobster Salad. 

If you serve the lobster in the shape of a salad, 
with lettuce and a little watercress and "mustard," 



52 BEAL COOKEEY. 

do not, please, kill its flavour by a rich mayonnaise 
sauce. Be content with oil and vinegar, salt and 
pepper, and do not let the lobster remain soaking 
in the mixture, but serve as soon as prepared, not 
forgetting to add the strained court-houillon to the 
dressing. I have not the slightest doubt many 
an indigestion attributed to the much-maligned 
lobster was due to the mayonnaise sauce in which 
it probably was slumbering for hours before it 
came to table, and to other things indigestible, 
eaten before or after. 

I do not hold with those who forbid lobster, not 
even when my friend is a dyspeptic ; but in that 
case I recommend him to be careful as to the rest 
of his menu. 

Grilled Lobster. 

This is a very popular dish in the United States, 
and a very innocent one indeed. Again we are 
dealing, not with the boiled, but with the green 
lobster, cut in two lengthways. 

Now, please, fair madam, do not imagine that 



LOBSTER 53 



this is a cruel way of killing it. As a matter of 
fact, the lobsters you buy ready boiled at your fish- 
monger's are killed in a far less humane way, 
because a great number of them are put into the 
pot together, and they linger for many minutes, 
because the water, though boiling at the moment 
they are put into it, is chilled at once by the great 
mass of fish, and I have even heard it asserted that 
they squeal in their death struggles. Cutting it in 
two, commencing at the brain, kills the lobster at 
once, and you may now proceed to put it on the 
grill, having, of course, washed it well before cut- 
ting; add a little butter during the process of 
grilling. Ten minutes will suffice if, as you ought, 
you had a hot fire to start with. Some amateurs 
like the shell burnt to a coal, but I do not quite 
subscribe to this. 

Of course you have cracked the claws and joints 
before putting on the grill. Serve very hot, with a 
remoulade sauce, if you wish it. I don't I 



54 BEAL COOKEBY. 

Curried Lobster. 

Being determined not to use any fishmonger- 
boiled lobsters, I have none but " green" ones for 
a curry. Cut up the lobster and stew in its own 
juice and the curry IB minutes only. Pick the meat 
from the shells and return to the curry when the 
latter is sufficiently reduced and ready to serve. If 
you desire a rich dish, add the lobster butter, as 
described page 71 (crawfish butter). 

The fish thus prepared ought to be exquisitely 
tender. If you had taken a boiled lobster it would 
have been hard and dry. Why cook a thing twice ? 
Shellfish twice boiled — in short, overcooked — must 
be indigestible. 

Baked Lobster. 

Stew the green lobster, as above shown, shred the 
meat and put back into the shells with a little of 
the court-houilloii (see page 51), a few bread crumbs 
and slightly bake in the oven, salamander. Serve 
with the lobster butter separately, or with the 
sauce dijplomate (see page 71). 



LOBSTEB (« G. N."'). 65 

Lobster (" G. N."). 

One of the best dishes of the French cuisine is 
the Homard d VAmericaine (by the way, not at all 
an American dish), and there are several very ex- 
cellent recipes for it. But, to my mind, it is a very 
inconvenient dish, even if prepared for you alone, 
because you have to handle the shells floating in a 
rich sticky sauce. Therefore, I suggest the follow- 
ing modification : — 

Having cut it up, stew the green lobster with its 
juice in a *' mirepoix " (see Sauces, page 71), add 
from half a pint to a pint of good, sound, white 
wine and half a glassful of brandy. Take out the 
lobster after 13 minutes, pick out the meat in as 
large pieces as possible, keep warm in a heated 
silver dish. When the mirepoix is sufficiently 
reduced and thickened only, if necessary, with 
flour or egg, place a boiled head (shell) of lobster 
upright in the dish and pour over the meat 
arranged around it the mirepoix, and over that 
again the lobster butter. 

French authorities give 20 to 40 minutes as the 



56 HEAL COOKERY. 

proper time for stewing this fish. My own 
experience is that 13 to 14 minutes suffice to cook 
it and I am against cooking any longer than is 
absolutely necessary. 

Crawfish. 

These, too, are generally overcooked. Let the 
court-houillon of aniseed, carrots, and a little white 
or red wine (or none) be well on the boil before you 
plunge the fish into the kettle. Have a red-hot 
poker ready and keep stirring all the time. One 
minute will do the trick. 

They are much better served hot than cold. 

The best can be procured at 81, Wigmore Street. 

Whitebait. 

These are the only fish you are to fry, and you 
are to pay great attention to the ** surprise " of 
Brillat-Savarin's mode of frying in the very hottest 
of dripping or oil. Not a particle of grease to 
adhere to them when served. 



OTHER FISH. 67 



Other Fish. 

Frying being tabooed, you will readily discover 
other and excellent ways of preparing fish. Grilled, 
baked, or au gratiiiy or roasted as suggested by Sir 
Henry Thompson, or, if simply boiled, then served 
with plain melted butter and hashed parsley (not 
" drawn " butter), or with oil and lemon juice, or 
with a simple sauce verte (see page 68). Sir H. 
Thompson and Mr. Child draw attention to the 
much-neglected juice of the fish itself. Stew fish 
in its own court-bouillon and serve the latter, 
strained, but leaving the whole peppers and per- 
haps a laurel leaf or two in it, garnishing with 
slices of lemon. The addition of a little thicken- 
ing and a little white wine will bring you very 
close to the sauce au vin hlanc. 

Let your grilled fish taste of the fire and serve 
with a pat or two of maitre dlwtel butter, if a bit 
dry. 

Boiled white fish, as most good cooks know, are 
improved in colour by rubbing with lemon before 
boiling. 



58 BEAL COOEEBY, 

Above all things eschew purees of fish or shell- 
fish : they are hateful, and, I think, indigestible to 
boot. 

Many kinds of fish can be dressed mi gratin in 
the oven. When you are tired of sole, take a good- 
sized whiting, remove the bones, then a little butter 
and a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkling of 
chopped mushrooms and chives will produce a 
capital result. Cover your fish with buttered paper. 

Cold trout and other fish are excellent with a 
sauce of oil, salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon. 
Finely-chopped chives, too, are a grateful addition 
to this sauce. 

Meat. 

In roasting as well as in grilling it is essential 
that the meat be exposed to a very fierce fire to 
begin with, in order to set the albumen which then 
forms a coat in which the juices remain unimpaired ; 
no knife or fork ought to be put into the meat, be- 
cause then the juice would escape. For testing 
steaks or chops a pair of light tongs may be used. 



MEAT. 69 

If the meat be spongy to the touch, it is not cooked 
enough, but as soon as it becomes firm, though not 
hard, it is done. I have already spoken of the 
charcoal stove as producing excellent results. It 
costs a trifle, and a few more shillings will procure 
a slight wrought-iron stand with rests at various 
heights, so the grill may be further away from the 
fire after the first exposure to a fierce heat. If you 
wish to well develop the flavour you must well 
brown your steak, chop, or cutlet, the well-cleaned 
grill, thoroughly heated, having first been rubbed 
with good butter or dripping, and with onion as 
well, provided you do not object to a suspicion of 
its flavour. 

The tender-loin, ox filet, is the tenderest, but the 
sirloin (entrecote) furnishes the best flavoured 
steak. A tender rumpsteak, too, is a capital dish. 

Steaks. , 

Serve, only on sending to table, with a pat or 
two of maitre d'hotel butter, placed on top of the 
steak. (Butter slightly mixed with twice-washed, 



60 BEAL COOKERY. 

finely-cut parsley and a few drops of lemon juice. 
Do not fatigue it by too much mixing.) 

Cutlets should be cut from the best end of the 
neck and they should be thick. Trim neatly and 
serve on watercress with a lemon cut into 8 pieces. 
Some authorities say a few drops of lemon juice 
help the digestion of meat. 

Veal is rarely good or tender in this country. If 
you must have veal cutlets, have them \ inch thick 
only after the Viennese style, and serve grilled with 
lemon or maitre d'hotel butter or with a sharp sauce 
of beef stock and pickled gherkins. 

Game. 

Eoasting, whether of meat or of game, is so 
thoroughly well understood in this country that I 
need only say — roast, don't bake. But the roasting 
of wild duck is, to my mind, more carefully done 
in America, where a big bird, like the canvas-back, 
would have 20 minutes over a very fierce fire, and 
a smaller bird, like the widgeon, but 16 minutes. 
A» excellent bird, the latter, and very juicy, cooked 



ENTBJ^ES. 61 

that way, but it should be served in the American 
fashion ; that is to say, not carved into thin slices, 
but each breast to make one slice, or at most 
two (by cutting across, not lengthways). Served in 
this way, most of the juice remains in the meat, 
and you will not pant for lemon juice and cayenne 
to drown the flavour. A salad of tender celery 
stalks, cut small, wdth a dressing of thin mayon- 
naise is excellent with any wild duck. 

Entries. 

I have spoken of meat before touching on entrees. 
These precede the former at the dinner-table, but 
they are not so important a subject ; besides the 
suggestions already made, there is little left to 
describe in the shape of entrees. Eemember only 
my advice — if you have not a " cordon bleu,'' the 
simpler they are the better. 

Sweetbreads. — 1 prefer them blanched (cut into 
round, flat slices) and grilled. If you do not have 
the sauce diplomate, which is delicious, properly 
made, with them, J suggest either grilled mush- 



€5 



■ '^■^' ffTT, 



"▼T& 



JiilaBk. 




— .3 



ENTBEES. 63 

into his kitchen. I also draw the line at preserved 
tmffles.) 

Purees of mushrooms and of troffles are poison- 
ous. 

Foie gras (goose liver) should be served in the 
simplest form, and never when out of season (after 
the month of April j. 

Chicken stewed with Celery, — Stew the fowl with 
celery half an hour, then take it out, and, having 
previously prepared a sauce with a little butter, 
celery, and very little flour, mix it with the stock 
the chicken was stewed in, minus the celery. 

Chaudfraids of game birds. 

Larks stnfiTed with forced meat (preferable to 
minced liver). 

Cold Lamb cutlets. — A good neck of lamb, rather 
underdone, glazed with aspic jelly. Cut into 
cutlets, and cover each with a mixture of aspic 
jeUy and vegetables, such as carrots, string beans, 
&c. 

Boiled ham and very small broad bean* instead 
of the usual spinach. 



64 BEAL COOKEBY. 

Vegetables. 

None to be peppered in tbe kitchen except 
tomatoes, mushrooms, &c. 

Potatoes. — Always prefer the mealy to the waxy 
tuber. If you like them very mealy, put them into 
cold water, boil up quickly, and give them a good 
shaking in the pot when done. 

If mashed, they must not be a damp, firm paste. 
No milk or butter to be used. 

They are excellent simply passed through a close 
wire sieve ; and so are potato chips properly pre- 
pared, i.e., without a particle of grease sticking to 
them. 

Potatoes boiled or baked in their skins have more 
flavour than when cooked after peeling. 

French (string) beans should be carefully cleaned ; 
no strings left adhering. Excellent cold, dressed 
with oil, vinegar (very little), salt, and pepper. 

Cauliflower should be served with HoUandaise 
sauce (see page 69). 

Steived Cucumber, Chicory, Lettuce, and Celery 
are improved by a meat-stock sauce. 



VEGETABLES. 65 



Green Peas, when really fresh, need only be 
simply boiled and served with a pat of fresh 
butter. 

Another way, and an excellent one, is d la 
Franqaisey stewed in butter with a little onion or 
shallot. 

Tomatoes i stewed, or cut in two and grilled. 

Mushrooms are generally overcooked, and they 
then loose their delicate flavour. Never have any 
except perfectly fresh ones with pink gills. 

Sir Henry Thompson tells us how to cook giant 
Asparagus. They should be cut of equal lengths 
and boiled, standing upwards with nearly two 
inches of the heads out of water, the steam sujffi- 
cing to cook the heads ; boiling 30 or 40 minutes 
the stalks will be soft and succulent, and the heads 
will not drop off — only too often the case in the 
usual way of cooking them. I have found Sir 
Henry's advice to be most excellent. 

Canned green corn requires 15 minutes gentle 
simmering with a little butter and cream. Can be 
procured at Jackson's, in Piccadilly. 

5 



66 REAL COOKEBT. 



Broad Beans when very small, no bigger than a 
marrowfat pea, are a most delicious dish, cooked 
with cream or milk parsley and a little butter. 
When full size they are coarse, harsh, and they 
have to be peeled, losing the best part, the skin, 
which has all the flavour. 

nice with Tomatoes. — Blanch 2 teacupsful of 
Italian rice, wash in cold water, then 2 tablespoons- 
ful of tomato sauce, a piece of butter, and cover 
with stock and a little salt. Boil ^ hour. 

Rice ivith grated cheese. — Wash the rice as above, 
add a piece of glaze, 3 spoonsful of grated cheese, 
cover with stock, a little salt, and a piece of butter. 
Boil J- hour. 

While I condemn as a rule things out of season, 
whether fruit or vegetables (and I must say im- 
mature fruit gives very little pleasure or profit to 
anybody except the greengrocer), while I urge you 
to have vegetables only when in season, I must 
confess to a weakness for asparagus in mid-winter. 
Those sent over from France are very excellent. 
Well cooked and served on a napkin with a good 



GABNISHE8. 67 



Hollandaise sauce, served separately, they make 
a capital dish after the joint, if you do not mind 
the expense, though it may not exceed that of 
some very absurd and highly ornamented entree. 

Since vegetables are used largely as garnishes, 
may I be permitted to enter a protest against the 
over-elaboration of these into fancy shapes ? The 
latter remind me almost unpleasantly of the 
necessity of many fingers handling our victuals, 
and I would rather be without the reminder. After 
all, not mentioning the wastefulness, it is only a 
pitiful attempt to charm the eye by the cook's 
attempts at sculpturesque ornamentation. 

I hope you are too sensible and too straight- 
forward to allow any such shams and any "dum- 
mies " whatever to appear at your table. 

Sauces. 

Of Sauces I will endeavour to say as little as 
possible, since we do not attempt the grande 
cuisine or cuisine classique, the sauces of which, 
as Mr. Theodore Child very justly observes, are 



beyond you. unless yon pc-ss^Ess a very execlleiit 
e^Tok and a ^o»>d Icn^ purs*?. Bat we must diacnaH 
a lev besides tbe tqej sanple odgb ftlreadj men- 
tionBd ; tiiOBe of oil vilii kmon, siJft, and pepper, 
and tiieir defdi^ment, into the wuugntte, the 
JMKC mfe; or tiie tmnfoie, and ve most also say a 
voand aboot ihidennig and g^aw. 

Glaae Ib the most inqportant <rf ba oco ior oanccfl . 
Take tiii^ peal entl^B, ledooe with earrotB, onions, 
and pefpereonia, little or no salt ; lednee all day, 
sliain. (Qm be procured at Benoisfs, in Piccadilly.) 
Tbidkening with floor and water, or fkinr and milk, 
cr £::ir ^nd stodL dioiild be prepared on the fire, 
■2 a tammy, and htiiied fiieiiiin":^; 
- _ ^ -ton while pooling into tiie 

I_ . _ -:<erandfloor(rwur)i8prc - t; 

- z-r - :. '"rbt brown, and then I ::ijt1 

_ _ T : _ 1 z nre mitil it boib. liien 

-_ _-• ^ T- .-v'-'-r Q T- .T 



Thieken_. _ . _ ?been 

taken :z'_t1-t__-;- - __ -i6S, 



Thicken with butter only on taking sauces (or 
vegetables) off the fire when ready to serve. 

Since drawn butter (the French sauce hlanche) 
enters so largely into our British bills of fare I 
may as well state the reason why it is so frequently 
a failure, tasting oftener Uke paste than like butter. 
Goufle explains— and it may be a soriy comfort 
for you to know that similar complaints exist in 
France — that the first reason is the insufficient 
quantity of butter, the proper proportion being 3 
of tje former to 1 of flour, and the second the 
putting all the materials into the pot together, 
instead of first mixing, with the seasoning, 1 of 
butter and 1 of flour, stirring with a wooden spoon 
till boiling, then adding the remaining 2 of butter, 
taking off the fire and allowing the butter to melt. 

Proceed gradually also in making Sauce Hoi- 
landaise. Mix in the '* bain-marie'' a piece of 
butter the size of a wahiut with the yolk of an egg 
and seasoning (the germ and the white of the egg 
carefully removed), keep stirring and take off the 
fire as soon as the egg begins to set, then add 



70 BEAL COOKEBY, 

the Bame quantity of butter, stir until melted, put 
back on the fire 1 minute, then proceed again with 
the same quantity of butter, repeating this opera- 
tion four or five times. When quite thick add a 
little tarragon vinegar, or, better still, a squeeze 
of lemon. If the sauce turns, correct by a spoonful 
of cold water. Some cooks prefer using a whisk 
to a wooden spoon, but wood is better than metal; 
therefore, if you use a w^hisk, let it be a wooden 
one. 

This is Goufife's recipe, but I have found a much 
simpler one equally good : — 4 yolks of eggs, the 
juice of 1 lemon, a small J lb. of perfectly 
fresh butter, 2 tablespoonful of cold water ; put all 
into a saucepan over a brisk fire and whip until 
it comes to a boil. 

Never put Sauce Hollandaise into a hot sauce 
boat, it is sure to turn. 

In the matter of seasoning herbs Mr. Theodore 
Child's remarks deserve every attention, and the 
allspice described by him, prepared according to 
Gouffe, is excellent for the — 



SAUCES. 71 

Mirepoix, which is a basis for brown sauces. 
Brown in a stew-pan with 3 oz. of butter, 
1 lb. of uncooked ham and J lb. of fat bacon, 
all cut into small pieces. Slice 2 onions, 2 
carrots, and 2 shallots, and add a couple of bay 
leaves, a bunch of parsley, and a sprig or two of 
thyme, also a dozen peppercorns, bruised. Sub- 
stitute, if you like, the allspice above named for 
the herbs. When slightly coloured pour in 2 
quarts of good veal stock and a bottle of light 
wine. Boil and strain after simmering 2 hours. 

Sauce Diplomate, — Pour into a casserole a quan- 
tity (about a pint) of good bechamel sauce (white 
stock), embody with it gradually, and always stir- 
ring, just as you do with the Hollandaise sauce, 
about J lb. of good butter ; finish with a good 
lump of crawfish or lobster butter, a few drops of 
anchovy essence, and a pinch of cayenne. 

Sauce Souhise is a puree of white onions with 
white stock. Excellent with cutlets. 

Craivfish, Shrimp or Lobster Butter.— 'Pound the 
shells with all the fat and such meat as may have 



n BEAL COOKEBY. 



been left inside of them, and stew with a little 
butter. The rich fat or butter will rise very soon. 
I do not recommend your stewing these shells, as 
some authorities do. Gouffe says 1 hour. I think 
I get purer flavour by 5 to 10 minutes' stewing 
than by 1 hour. 

'* Rough and Ready " Sauces, — A very simple and 
toothsome sauce is very quickly procurable by 
frying a shallot with a little butter, adding a little 
meat glaze, a tablespoonful or two of water, and a 
little vinegar or a few drops of lemon juice. Ex- 
cellent with veal cutlets. Another consists of 
tomatoes and shallots cut up and put into a stew- 
pan with a little butter and parsley and glaze. 
Pass through a sieve. No thickening required for 
either of these sauces if properly made. 

Use no thickening for any sauce if you can pos- 
sibly do without. It may give consistency, but 
rarely adds to the flavour of the sauce. 

Sauce Bearnaise. — Whisk J lb. of butter with the 
yolks of 2 eggs, by degrees add a little salt, chopped 
tarragon, and a spoonful of vinegar. 



SWEETS. 73 



I cannot leave the subject of sauces without 
referring to the more than frequent cases of failure 
of shrimp and lobster sauce. The reason of their 
pasty taste is that they are, alas, prepared too 
often with the vilest ** drawn butter" instead of 
with good white stock, and that the shrimps and 
lobster are over-cooked. Good drawn butter, how- 
ever, with the lobster or shrimps, just warmed and 
no more, will produce excellent results. I prefer 
not to flavour with anchovy in case of shrimp 
sauce ; properly prepared it does not need any 
extra flavouring. Green lobster, again, makes a 
much better lobster sauce than the boiled lobster. 

Sweets. 

Caramel. — One of the best and most nourishing 
is a rich custard, steamed in a mould lined with 
caramel (burnt sugar), and flavoured with vanilla 
pod — not the essence. 

Serve with a cream and egg sauce, also flavoured 
with vanilla. 



74 BEAL COOKEBY. 

Chocolate Puffs {Profiteroles au Chocolat). — A very 
light paste of flour and egg that will bake hollow. 
Cut the puffs in two, fill with rich, vanilla-flavoured 
custard, and pour firm melted chocolate over the 
puffs. Serve with whipped cream on a separate 
dish. 

Chocolate Wafer Cake. — Eight or 10 layers of 
best Carlsbad wafers. Melt, but do not boil, your 
chocolate with a little butter, mix a portion of it 
with pounded filberts and spread between the 
layers. Glaze the cake with the remaining cho- 
colate. Serve with whipped cream on a separate 
dish. 

Chocolate Cake. — Melt 6 cakes or tablets of 
chocolate with 12 oz. of butter until soft, stir in 
12 oz. of sugar, stir in gradually the yolks of 9 
eggs, beat up the whites and mix with 7 oz. of 
bread crumbs ; put into fiat buttered tins, bake and 
cool i hour. Ice with chocolate and icing sugar. 

Rode Groed (a Banish sweet). — One quart of the 
juice of equal quantities of raspberries and currants 
(red) passed through a hair sieve, 4 oz. German 



ICES, 75 

semolina and 1 oz. isinglass, IJ lb. loaf sugar ; oil 
a china mould and boil 10 minutes. Serve cold 
with cream. 

Mousseline Chocolate Sauce (for farinaceous pud- 
dings). — Mix in a stew-pan 4 yolks of eggs, 2 oz. of 
butter, 2 oz. of sugar, till thick, add a little potato 
flour and the 4 whites whisked stiff, steam 20 
minutes, boil 3 tablets of chocolate in syrup for 
2 hours and pour over hot. 

Ices. 

I strongly recommend you to make your own. 
A freezer only costs lis. 6d., and it will soon pay 
for itself. You will thus have better flavoured 
ices, and you will be sure not to be poisoned. 

None of these recipes are, as you can easily see, 
very complicated. You will do well by avoiding 
any that are. Let your motto be 

" Its own aroma each meat, each vegetable its own 
verdure " (Lapy Morgan). 



76 



BEAL COOKEEY, 



Finally, 

Dish up neatly, though not gaudily, and serve 
hot, very hot, and then you will be sure to please 
both eye and palate. 



4fe 




PATIENT'S BILL OF FAKE. 

BREAKFAST. 

Bread, home-made. Biscuits, Captain's. 

„ French. „ Ohver (Bath). 

„ wholemeal. .« Unleavened. 

„ hrown. „ Oatmeal. 

(Should be more or less stale.) (Toast prepared as on p. 44.) 

Tea, prepared as on p. 45. 

Coffee, prepared as on p. 45. 

Chocolate, preferably water chocolate (see p. 46). 

Cocoa, Root's Cuca Cocoa, Van Houten's. 

Porridge, boiled at least 40 minutes ; no sugar or syrup. 

Hominy, boiled and grilled (see p. 49). 

Eggs, boiled not more than three minutes. 

„ poached or as omelette (see p. 47). 

„ buttered with shrimps, ham, &c. (see p. 48) . 
No fried eggs. 

Ham or bacon well grilled and the liquid fat drained off. 
Fresh fish preferably boiled or grilled ; none fried. 
Kippers, bloaters. Finnan haddocks. 

77 



78 BEAL COOKEEY, 



Grilled steak or chop. 

Kedgeree. 

Cold meat or fowl. 

Baked apples. 

Marmalade. 

Fresh fruit, preferably before the meal. 



Number of dishes allowed besides liquids. 



LUNCHEON. 

Extra dishes besides those on the dinner and breakfast 
list :— 

Beef-tea or chicken broth. 

„ „ cold (in jelly). 

With or without pieces of breast of fowl. 

Sweets. 
Savoury. 
Cheese. 
Fresh fruit. 

Cup of black coffee. 



BILL OF FABE. 79 



Beverages. 
Wines. Table waters. 

Sulis (Bath). 
Alcoholic liquors. ApoUinaris. 

Salutaris. 
Malt liquors. St. Galmier. 

Vichy. 

Vals. 



Number of dishes allowed besides liquids. 



DINNER 



No hors-d'oeuvres, except perhaps salt sardines or the very 
best Eussian caviar in jars (not in tins), or shrimps (no 
prawns). 

Oysters, the very best only. 

Soups, preferably clear soup. No soups containing wine, 
spices, or hot sauces. 
„ chicken or mutton broth. 

„ mock turtle, made simply and from calves' heads, 
light purees (with stock) of celery, artichokes, &c. 
„ clear turtle. 
No bisques of crawfish (^crevisses) or of lobster. 



80 REAL COOKERY. 

Fish. 

Lobster. 

Crab. 

Crayfish (langouste). 

Crawfish (ecrevisses). 
No mussels, scollops, periwinkles, &c. 
All sorts of salt and fresh water fish except : 

Salmon, 

Grey mullet, 

Herrings, 

Mackerel, 

Eels, or any fat fish. 
Whitebait allowed only if perfectly fresh and served free 
from grease ; no other fried fish. 
Scolloped oysters. 
Filleted sole stuffed with oysters. 
Sole au gratin with mushrooms, tomatoes, and onion. 
Whiting au gratin (see p. 57). 



Entries. 

Calves' heads, plain or with vinaigrette sauce (see p. 68). 
Sweetbreads, not fried ; either boiled, stewed, or grilled 
(see p. 69). 
„ with sauce dijplomate (see p. 69), 



BILL OP FABB, 81 

Chicken breasts stewed in their own juice with a httle 
butter. 
„ with the addition to the sauce of ^crevisse butter 
and claws. 
Cream of chicken (see p. 62). 
Chicken coquilles. 

„ stewed with rice or celery. 

„ „ „ tomatoes, mushrooms, and a Uttle 

white wine. 
Calves' livers. 
Pigeons. 

Fowls' livers grilled with or without bacon. 
Fowls or game-birds en casserole. 
Cutlets sautes. 
Curries. 

Grilled lobster (see p. 52). 
Baked „ (see p. 54). 

No partridge cooked in cabbage, no salonis, no patis or 
entrees prepared in pastry or pie-crust. 



Butcher's Meat. 
None fried. 

Steak, preferably entricote (see p. 59). 
Chop. 
Cutlets (see p. GO). 

6 



82 BEAL COOKEBY. 

Cutlets with soubise sauce (puree of onions). 
Veal only grilled in ^ inch slices (see p. 60). 
No pork or larded meats. 



Fowls. 
All sorts, except domestic ducks or geese. 



Game Birds. 

Plain, roasted, or grilled (see p. CO, for roasting wild 
ducks). 



Game, 

Roast venison (not hashed). 

„ steak or chop grilled. 

Roe deer. 
No hare or leveret ; rabbit only if very young. 



BILL OF FARE. 83 



Vegetables. 

Farinaceous vegetables, preferably in the shape of purees. 

Green vegetables to be perfectly fresh. 

No cabbage or egg plant. 

Potatoes, preferably passed through a sieve. 

Spinach, preferably in puree. 

Vegetable maiTow. 

Cauliflower. 

Tomatoes. 

Salsifis. 

French beans. 

Broad beans, only if small and tender (see p. 66), 

Green peas, plain or a la Frangaise. 

Artichokes, Jerusalem. 

„ Ball, with vinaigrette sauce. 

Mushrooms (fresh ones, not preserved ones), grilled or 
baked, and not overcooked. 

No ceps or truffles. 

Asparagus, fresh, not canned. 

Macaroni and nouilles, plain or d Vltalienne or au gratin. 

Cucumber, also stewed, with meat glaze. 

Celery, also stewed puree, with meat glaze. 

Seakale. 

„ cold, with vinaigrette sauce. 

Green corn, canned (see p. 65). 
„ fresh. 

Salad, with plain dressing only (oil and vinegar, salt and 
pepper). 



84 MEAL COOKEMY. 

Sweets. 

No pastry of any kind. 

All sorts of farinaceous and bread and butter puddings 
and of stewed fruit with rice, &c. 

Biz d Vlmjperatrice, 
„ meringud. 

Sweet omelettes. 

„ with rum. 

Creams or custards, flavoured with chocolate, coflee 
vanilla, caramel, &c., but not with any extracts. 

Jellies, if wine, the best only. 

Sponge cake. 

„ with chocolate or coffee cream, 

Apple or orange fritters. 

Pancakes. 

Plum pudding. 

Chocolate wafer cake (see p. 74). 

Baba au rum. 

Kode Groed (see p. 74). 

Souffles, light, not sodden. 

No ices. 



Savouries. 

Only simple ones, such as herring roes grilled, bloater, or 
haddock ; no rich, devilled, or highly spiced messes. 



BILL OF FAMB. 85 



CJieese. 

Swiss. Koquefort. Cheddar. 

Brie. Gorgonzola. Stilton. 

Camembert. Pont Salut. Gloucester. 

Fresh Frtdt. 

No canned or candied fruit. 
Melon only before the meal. 

Apples, grapes, strawberries, blackberries, pears, peaches, 
raspberries, cherries, oranges, apricots, gooseberries. 
Nuts. 

Cup of black coffee. 



Liqueurs, 

Cognac. 
Kirsch. 
Cura9ao. 
Chartreuse, yellow. 

„ green. 
Benedictine. 
(For a stimulant, a small liqueur glassful of chartreuse in 
half a tumbler of water.) 
Wines. Table waters. 

Sulis (Bath). 



86 BEAL COOKEBY. 

Alcoholic liquor. ApoUinaris. 

Salutaris. 
Malt liquor. St. Galmier. 

Vichy, Vals. 



Number of dishes allowed besides liquids. 



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